Tuesday 2 December 2014

She's Not Sure If You're A Boy Or A Girl" Rebel Rebel - David Bowie


Many people find crossgender/transgender culture shocking still. Thai 'Ladyboys' (called Kathoey in Siamese) are some what of a grey area as most people consider them primarily male not female. I find it interesting that people don't consider them genderless or to have their own gender, why do they have to be labelled male or female? I found that the initial studies (below) done with fineliner and water were too personal, to remedy this I will not include any facial features in further studies.


I found it hard to get reference images as most 'Ladyboys' want to have female genitals, so to them still having male genitals is shameful. I was inspired by a few images online using the fineliner and water technique and I found it useful for just capturing the overall form.
Fineliner and water
Fineliner and water
A further study in Charcoal

Vikki Stevens is an emerging artist interested in many areas including body image, mental health and abstraction. Her latest series of work aims to show how images and perceptions of women are “put- together”/ manufactured, and how these images and perceptions affect how women feel about their own body image. Vikki’s ideas for her artwork are expressed in mediums such as paint, collage and sculptural objects, mostly incorporating repurposed images from magazines and found documents. Artists such as Tracey Emin and Hannah Hoch have a large influence on her work. Both the personal perspective and distorted images play a major part in creating pieces that discuss personal as well as cultural issues within mainly the western world/media sphere. Stevens is planning on developing her work into a more abstract sphere to investigate feelings that she has herself and how she can communicate them by using and developing abstract techniques, continuing with collage as a starting influence. Currently the materials and processes she has used in her past work and the work in development are having a large impact on how the work develops and the message behind the work is entirely open. Rather than having a stand out message Stevens is now moving towards a more indirect way of working, focusing more on feelings rather than statements. Current concerns within the work reflect how Stevens feels about herself in day-to-day life and how outside influences affect her and her work. More specifically Stevens is dealing with feelings of anxiety, panic attacks, depression and how she feels as an individual in the world. Artists such as Gerhard Richter, Barbara Kruger, Yago Hortal and Steve Salo are having a large impact on the current work in development.

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